Conductor Nir Kabaretti has established an outstanding international reputation of both symphonic and operatic repertoire. In 2002, Kabaretti was appointed Principal Conductor of the Raanana Symphonette Orchestra in Israel and in 2003, its Music Director until 2008. In 2006 he was chosen to be the music director of the Santa Barbara Symphony in California and in 2014 he has been appointed Music Director of the South West Florida Symphony.
Upon graduation from the prestigious University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, he began working as Coach and Chorus Master at the Vienna State Opera and the Salzburg Festival, followed by positions as assistant to the Music Director at the Teatro Real in Madrid and conductor and personal assistant to Zubin Mehta at Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, Italy.
His operatic experience includes productions at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Macbeth, Il trovatore, Gianni Schicchi, Il Viaggio a Reims), Teatro Real in Madrid (La Cenerentola, Die Walküre), The Israeli Opera (Fidelio, Manon Lescaut), Opéra de Lausanne (Nino Rota's Il Cappello di Paglia di Firenze, Die Fledermaus) and The New National Theatre in Tokyo (Il barbiere di Siviglia). During 2004-05, Kabaretti made his début at Teatro alla Scala di Milano with Tchaikowsky´s The Nutcracker, and was invited again in 2007 for a ballet production of Mendelssohn's Midsummer night's Dream (broadcasted by Italian television RAI).
Some of Kabaretti's engagements for the past seasons include Carmen at the Granada Theatre (California), a production of Lohengrin at Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Romeo and Juliet, a Gala for Roland Petit, The Nutcracker, Cinderella and Don Quixote at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome and Swan Lake and The Nutcracker at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence; Falstaff in Lausanne, Nabucco and Il barbiere di Siviglia in Avenches, Fidelio in New York and the closing concert of the Mittelfest Festival in Cividale.
Recently Mr Kabaretti conducted The Swan Lake and The Nutcracker at the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome; a series of concerts in Fort Meyers and in Liege with the Orchestre Philarmonique and on tour in Belgium, then in Santa Barbara, Michigan, Bloomington, in Parma with the Toscanini Orchestra and in Israel with the Israel Sinfonietta; Die Fledermaus in Bari; Madama Butterfly at the Festival Puccini in Torre del Lago; L’Elisir d’amore at the Opera in Lausanne and Tosca in Jesi.
